In 1945, Han van Meegeren was arrested by the Dutch Field Security and charged with collaborating with the Nazis. The charges stated that in 1942 he sold a national treasure, a painting by Vermeer (The Woman Taken in Adultery) to Hermann Göring. In post-war Holland, this crime carried a severe penalty of a sentence of life in prison or possibly death.
Van Meegeren’s defense was quite unexpected: he claimed that rather than being a traitor, he was a great patriot, because he had in fact made a fool of Hermann Göring by selling him a forgery. He further claimed that he himself had painted not only the work he sold to Göring, but a total of 14 “classical Dutch masterpieces” that were among some of the most famous paintings held in major Dutch collections including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Museum Boymans in Rotterdam.
Many of these paintings had long been accepted by leading art historians as important Vermeer works; many had been published in major art historical journals and catalogues; and some had fetched very high prices on the art market. Art historians scoffed at van Meegeren’s claim, and passed it off as simply a ridiculous and desperate attempt to save himself.
What evidence should the Dutch judicial authorities begin to gather in order to evaluate van Meegeren’s claim?
Each group should meet and discuss this question, then formulate a group response. Use a text editor to answer the question, save in RTF format, then use the WebCT assignment tool to submit one group response to the question.
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